


waiting for the light

by blackbird blackbird (assassinactual)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 11:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16515458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assassinactual/pseuds/blackbird%20blackbird
Summary: Alex and Lena, with Kara after the end of 4.03.





	waiting for the light

**Author's Note:**

> title's from off to sleep by coeur de pirate.
> 
> disclaimer: everything's made up and the points don't matter.

Alex Danvers has spent more time than she’d care to admit watching Lena Luthor and her sister.

At first, and for a long time after, because she didn’t trust Kara’s new friend. Then, because Kara and Lena are just so damn _intriguing_. The strange dance of their friendship, the looks Kara gives Lena, and especially the way Lena looks at Kara.

A little sad, a little longing, but mostly pure devotion and adoration.

The same way that Lena is now looking at Supergirl.

Alone, watching over her in the anti-kryptonite suit. Things have settled down, Kara has stabilized but not yet woken. Alex stands in the doorway, returning from having briefly stepped out.

She takes her time studying Lena.

Of course, there’s been things that have made Alex wonder before. The particular way she flirts with Kara, the jokes or random remarks that she can’t contextualize any other way, the knowing looks when Kara can’t see, and her occasional very pointed ignorance when Kara is a bit careless about doing something _Super._

All those made her wonder. This look doesn’t leave any room for that.

“You know,” Alex says softly. Not a question.

Lena shows no sign of being startled by Alex’s quiet entrance. She barely moves, apart from the worried lines on her face softening into a wistful smile.

“Since I first met her, I think.”

Then, a little less certain, but still not quite a question: “You’re in love with her.”

Lena’s expression somehow turns even softer.

“How could I not be?”

The certainty of it strikes Alex. There’s no hesitation in saying it, no reservation in her voice. Her and Lena have never been this close, this open, but she supposes almost losing one of the most important people in their lives will do this.

“Why haven’t you said anything?” Alex is asking about Kara’s identity, mostly, she thinks. That’s how Lena seems to take it, at least.

Lena finally turns away from Kara to face Alex. Her voice is as even as ever, but there’s a quite fierceness just underneath the surface. “Her secret, her identity – that’s entirely hers. As long as she doesn’t want to talk about it, I will respect that. She’s never pushed me any more than I wanted when it comes to talking about my past. I won’t begrudge her this.”

Alex doesn’t miss Lena’s specific phrasing. _As long as she doesn’t want to talk about it_. There’s enough ambiguity there that Alex wonders if Kara does know, and how far this unspoken but still somehow understood thing between them goes.

She wants to ask more. But she’s not quite sure what exactly to say. And she feels a little like she’s intruding on a moment between the two of them. Just when she’s thinking about slipping back out, Lena speaks again.

“You know when she hugs you, really hugs you, how it always feels like she’s holding herself back?” Alex nods, the realizes that Lena, once more watching Kara, can’t see her. Lena continues, though, as if she picked it up anyway, or wasn’t expecting a response. “I never thought about it, or really consciously wanted to make the connection until the first time Supergirl held me. I was scared. That it would change something between us. That if I acknowledged it, even just to myself, I’d feel betrayed.” Lena’s gaze loses focus a little, more looking past Kara than at, like she’s caught up in a memory. She smiles slightly as she speaks. “But the next time I saw her, as Kara, it was the same as it always was. She smiled and she treated me as a friend without expecting anything from me. The only difference was that I got to see another piece of her. Being her friend is one of the best things in my life. I would never do anything to break what I have with her.”

Lena reaches out, takes hold of Kara’s hand. Her pale hand looks incongruously small and fragile in Kara’s unmoving armoured fist.

“I’d do anything for her,” Lena says, mostly to herself, so quietly Alex barely hears.

Alex draws in a shaky breath. The sound attracts Lena’s attention. “Alex? Are you alright?”

She hurriedly wipes at her cheek, expecting tears but finding none. “Yeah,” she says breathlessly. She swallows, takes a deep breath. “Yeah,” she repeats a bit more steadily.

Lena frowns at her, but then gives a tiny nod and turns back to Kara.

“She’s going to come through this.” That quiet certainty is there again, and Alex finds herself reassured by Lena’s faith.

Alex half-turns on her heel, hesitates. She does trust Lena now, even more after this conversation. Still, she doesn’t like leaving Kara like this. She watches them a moment longer, then makes up her mind.

“I’m gonna go get some rest.”

Lena nods. “I’ll be here.”


End file.
